Photos Matter

Many commercial resort buyers aren’t necessarily from the area so photos will become their initial inside look at the property and their first step in evaluating whether the property meets their needs. Then they can plan to actually go and visit the property. While there are tons of magnificent resorts on the market, if their photos do the listing a disservice, then problems with bringing in potential buyers will only persist. Often times people say the location or amenities speak for themselves, but people have to see it to understand the value there. The listing photos need to be strong enough to get them onsite. While many management companies and resort staff have access to photos from brochures or websites, make sure the photos are an accurate portrayal as well. If you need new ones, enlist a professional photographer or the help of your agent or broker for guidance. In many cases, your agent can spearhead this mission with minimal hassle on your end.‍

Know the Market

While you yourself might not know the specifics of your local or the global market, ensure that your real estate professional is cognizant of it. This will help you define the right price that will sell your resort for the optimal value without spending too much time on the market and becoming stale. It’s a balance and one that your realtor should be able to strike. If you aren’t confident in their expertise, don’t be afraid to survey multiple options. At the end of the day, it’s your investment and you want to ensure it pays off.‍

Quality over Quantity

In commercial real estate, it’s not uncommon for properties to spend a bit more time on the market since they typically require a very specific type of buyer since it’s not a property, but rather an interconnected set of businesses. Brokers help to align the right potential buyers with resort listings in order to alleviate some of the problems that occur with over publicizing or opening up a listing to anyone. Brokers are more capable of keeping things professional and private. They can vet people before touring the grounds and have a better knowledge of which listing sites will open you up to leads as opposed to putting it on display for gawkers without any real progress derived from the time and exposure.‍

The SVN Northco Difference

When it comes to selling a resort, you aren’t just selling the property or land, but rather a hub of multiple profit centers. At SVN Northco, we focus on selling our resorts as businesses rather than a piece of property. A typical commercial or even residential property has valuations based on the home or facility and the assets themselves.

A business like a resort, on the other hand, brings in multiple revenue streams and as a result requires an experienced real estate broker in order to properly evaluate the resort and in turn handle the mergers and acquisition process. Of course, the real estate itself matters, but that valuation is only one factor in the price. Instead, we factor in all of the valuable assets involved like profit centers or revenue streams so the price properly reflects the business value.

Frank Jermusek is a Principal at SVN | Northco headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. SVN has become one of the most recognized commercial real estate brands in the world with over 200 offices globally.

The resort and golf segment has been a relatively strong service over the past 10 years. If the ‘lock down’ stays within 30-60 days, we believe the golf and resort industry should “weather the storm” for the following reasons:

With so much uncertainty surrounding Covid-19, we hope you are staying safe and healthy. As most of the world goes into lockdown, we’ve collected a number of resources to help those affected in the hospitality industry navigate through these unprecedented and challenging times.

As the impact of COVID-19 continues to expand, we want to ensure you receive the latest and most up-to-date information and resources so you can better help your employees in this challenging time and stabilize your business as much as possible as we all adjust to this new normal

Timeshares aren’t the only way to own a piece of paradise. Vacationers can now choose between timeshares, fractional unit ownership, or whole unit ownership. So what exactly is the difference? It all comes down to the type of ownership you want for your vacation home.